The European Commission is increasing pressure on Ukraine to adopt several key reforms it was expected to pass last year, in a bid to secure more EU funding and advance toward membership of the bloc.
In a recent letter to the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos notes that there are “several important draft laws currently under consideration.”
In the letter, seen by RFE/RL, she added that “these reforms do not only support Ukraine’s (EU) accession path, but they are also part of the Ukraine Plan, which forms the basis for the disbursement of financial assistance under the Ukraine Facility.”
Hungary is currently blocking a 90-billion-euro ($104 billion) loan for Kyiv for 2026 and 2027, initially agreed by EU leaders in December.
This has created something of a credit crunch for the war-torn country with estimates that state coffers will run dry in May.
In the meantime, there is still cash left from the current EU loan structure, the Ukraine Facility, with the next 4 billion euro ($4.6 billion) tranche contingent on Kyiv passing these laws when the parliament reconvenes again later in April.
Apart from money, Budapest has for nearly two years also blocked the start of actual EU accession talks with Ukraine, even though there is hope in Brussels that at least some accession chapters could be opened some time after parliamentary elections in Hungary on April 12.
While Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still aiming for membership of the bloc next year, few inside the EU believe that this is even remotely possible given the political standstill since 2024.
While not committing to the Ukrainian 2027 membership goal, most EU member states, as well as the European Commission, have praised Kyiv’s reform efforts during the war.
But amid public support several EU officials have told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that they are worried that the pace of Ukrainian reform might be dropping.
Zelenskyy's abortive move last year to limit the independence of two key anti-corruption agencies is seen as evidence that not all the reforms the country needs to undertake to eventually become a member of the club will be politically straightforward.
Kos’s letter also hints at what is at stake for Kyiv.
“Continued progress would help maintain reform momentum, bring Ukraine closer to EU membership, and deliver concrete results for Ukrainian citizens," she wrote. "The adoption of these laws would also send a strong signal to all EU Member States at an important juncture about Ukraine’s unwavering commitment to deliver on its reform agenda.”
The letter outlines 11 laws that need to be adopted, which had been expected to pass as early as 2025.
Brussels had in fact anticipated that two of them -- the digitalization of court decisions and judicial integrity declarations -- would have been adopted already in the second quarter of last year.
Kos added that these laws would “help strengthen trust in the justice system, both for Ukrainian citizens and for international partners.”
Several of the laws are connected to reforms and the liberalization of Ukraine's energy sector, which has been under been under sustained Russian missile and drone attacks during the winter.
They include laws on heating and a permit for renewables with Kos noting that “reforms in the energy sector will help Ukraine integrate faster in the European electricity market.”
